Office partition systems such as have been available in the past, have usually involved a series of partition panels which are supported between the floor and interior ceiling of a building or space. Such systems must necessarily be fastened in position, and are intended as far as possible to simulate regular dry wall construction.
These types of partition systems are relatively expensive and are of a semi permanent nature since it requires a fair amount of labour to move them from place to place.
In order to overcome these disadvantages, interior planners have adopted the use of free standing screens. Such screens will usually be of semi sound proof construction, and will consist of rectangular panels mounted on feet which will support the screen by itself. Three or four such screens may be arranged in a rectangular manner to enclose a working area. The advantage of this system is that the interior space may readily be rearranged simply by lifting up the screens and moving them from place to place. However, such free standing screens leave something to be desired from the view point of privacy. They are usually not connected with one another, and consequently any slight movement will open up a gap between adjacent screens which may be inconvenient.
In addition, such screens are not usually capable of supporting any accessories such as shelving, electrical wiring and lighting.
Some proposals have been made in the past for linking such screens together but such systems as have been available have been somewhat inconvenient, and have not entirely solved the problem of the lack of privacy. In addition, even when linked together, such screens systems did not generally speaking increase the rigidity of the separate screen panels. Thus it was generally speaking still necessary for such screens, even when linked together to be provided with self supporting feet since otherwise they would not remain upright. The dimensions and shaping of the feet necessary to support the individual screens somewhat intruded upon the space enclosed by the screens. Movement of persons, or furniture within the space enclosed might well be obstructed by the location of the supporting feet, with consequent inconvenience.